Monday, August 27, 2012

Chapels of St. George, St. Symeon, St. Paraskevi, and St. Constantine


More chapels. 

On the border between the two parishes of Portaria is the town's cemetery, along with this cemetery chapel dedicated to St. Paraskevi, jointly administered by the two parishes.


Here you can see part of the cemetery off to the right.


Above, the inside of the chapel.


We also have a chapel dedicated to St. George. This chapel is not too far from the central temple, along the cobblestones roads connecting the central temple (and our house) to the main road.


A few of the local women have undertaken the responsibility to make sure the chapel is clean.


We've already celebrated Liturgy in this chapel. Often, a parishioner will request a Liturgy on Saturday so that a departed loved one can be commemorated with a memorial.


Here's a photo from the northwest of the chapel dedicated to St. Symeon. This one is properly called an exoklisio, which indicates that it lies outside the village proper (in a field). The others, inside the residential part of the village, are called parekklisia, or less formally, ekklisakia. This chapel is actually also dedicated to the Panagia, but it has come to be called St. Symeon because of a large, old icon of the saint inside. The main feast or panegyri for the chapel is St. Symeon on Sept. 1.


Above is a photo from the southeast of the "chapel" of St. Constantine. Actually, it's a three-aisle basilica style church (about the same size as our main temple), probably dating to the early 1800s if not before. Originally, it was the katholikon (central temple) of a monastery which no longer exists. This is also located outside the residential part of the village.



This is a photo taken from the chapel of the Holy Archangels. On the left, you can see the neighboring mountain village of Makrinitsa. Off to the right, you can make out the "chapel" of St. Constantine.

No comments: